Asian Islam in the 21st Century

John L. Esposito is University Professor of Religion and International Affairs at Georgetown University and Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. He is Editor-in Chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World and The Oxford History of Islam. His more than 35 books include World Religions Today, Second Edition, Islam: The Straight Path, Revised Third Edition, Unholy War: Terror in the Name of Islam, and What Everyone Needs to Know About Islam.John O. Voll is Professor of Islamic history and Associate Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin-Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding.Osman Bakar is Professor at the International Institute of Islamic Thought and Civilization (ISTAC), International Islamic University, MALAYSIA.

John L. Esposito with his co-editors has in this book assembled a group of scholars to reflect on trends in Asian Islam. Sixty percent of the world's Muslims live in Asian nations, and yet, as Esposito so elegantly explains in the introduction to this book, most of the West's images of Muslim culture and politics are drawn from a narrow and often misrepresented segment of the Arab Muslim world. In essays that discuss contemporary Muslim politics from Pakistan and India to Indonesia and Thailand, the contributors to this collection enrich our perception. They reveal an Asian Muslim politics of great challenge but also enormous opportunity. The result is a timely and important book that should be read by scholars and the general reader interested in understanding the true diversity of the Muslim world.

• 1. Introduction - John L. Esposito ; Part I. Religion, Politics and Society in Muslim Majority Societies ; 2. Islam in Indonesia in the 21st Century - Fred R. von der Mehden ; 3. Pakistan After Islamization: Mainstream and Militant Islamism in a Changing State - Vali Nasr ; 4. Islam, State and Society in Bangladesh - Mumtaz Ahmad ; 5. Malaysian Islam in the 21st Century: The Promise of a Democratic Transformation? - Osman Bakar ; 6. The Trifurcated Islam of Central Asia: A Turkish Perspective - M. Hakan Yavuz ; 7. A Provincial Islamist Victory in NWFP, Pakistan: The Social Reform Agenda of the Mutttahida Majlis-i-Amal - Anita M. Weiss ; Part II. Ethics and Religious Politics Muslim Minority Communities ; 8. Muslims in Post-Independence India - Steven I. Wilkinson ; 9. Islam in China - Jacqueline Armijo ; 10. The Impact of 9/11 Among Mindanao Muslims and the Mindanao Peace Process - Eliseo R. Mercado ; 11. The Ethno-Religious Dimension of the Muslim Crisis in Thailand - Imtiyaz Yusuf ; 12. Conclusion: Asian Islam at a Crossroads: Islam in Asia at the Beginning of the 21st Century - John Voll